McLaren on Huckabee on Wright
Congregational Leadership, Missional / Emerging Theology, Personal Discipleship April 11th, 2008Brian McLaren posted the following quote from Mike Huckabee:
As easy as it is for those of us who are white to look back and say, “That’s a terrible statement,” I grew up in a very segregated South, and I think that you have to cut some slack. And I’m going to be probably the only conservative in America who’s going to say something like this, but I’m just telling you: We’ve got to cut some slack to people who grew up being called names, being told, “You have to sit in the balcony when you go to the movie. You have to go to the back door to go into the restaurant. And you can’t sit out there with everyone else. There’s a separate waiting room in the doctor’s office. Here’s where you sit on the bus.” And you know what? Sometimes people do have a chip on their shoulder and resentment. And you have to just say, I probably would too. I probably would too. In fact, I may have had … more of a chip on my shoulder had it been me.
- Mike Huckabee, offering his perspective on the preaching of Rev. Jeremiah Wright. (Source: MSNBC)
He then adds:
I’ve been dismayed to see so many white pundits take more umbrage about Rev. Wright’s statements (some of which are, no doubt, offensive) than they do about the racism that created the anger, insult, and hurt out of which those statements arise. By amplifying their offense at Rev. Wright, they demonstrate their relative insensitivity to how destructive racism has been, and in so doing, they add to the anger, insult, hurt, and misunderstanding - perpetuating the vicious cycle. Their impolitic responses make Mike Huckabee’s response look all the wiser. Way to go, Mike. That’s leadership worthy of the adjective “Christian.”
What’d'y’all think?
April 11th, 2008 at 23:10:35 (-0500)
Ya know. . . if he’d stayed in the race, he just might’ve made a conservative out of me. I like how he never towed the party line on stuff. He’s way more conservative than me on some stuff, but even when he talked about stuff I disagreed with, I felt like he’d actually thought it through rather than being a Right Wing Robot.
I read some were (it escapes me now) that Christian politics should be “soft on things conservatives are hard on a hard on things liberals are soft on”. I think in this case, Huckabee is showing that soft side. Maybe he was the compassionate conservative that the Bush administration claimed they were being in the early 00’s.
April 12th, 2008 at 10:09:10 (-0500)
He was my guy. I’m so sad he’s out of the race.
April 12th, 2008 at 12:22:21 (-0500)
I do feel that I must add that I think Rev. Wright’s comments were inapproppriate in the context of exhortation of his flock, especially from the pulpit. I recognize that he was expressing the anger that I’m sure many African Americans feel after lifelong struggles with inequality, but his role as pastor is to positively exhort his congregation to let go of hatred and anger, as seemingly impossible as that might feel to his listeners. It can only be done with the power of the Holy Spirit, just as white Christians must seek that power to give up racism. The church should be THE leading force in this process of reconciliation.